Forum Guidelines

New Forum Guidelines (Revised February 2012 regarding Promotion)

Welcome to SFFWorld. Please take the time to familiarise yourself with our guidelines for use of the forums.

1. General Conduct
The SFFWorld.com website is a place for everyone interested in the genres it represents, whether that person is a thirteen-year-old fan or a best-selling author who chooses to spend some time with us. It is an online community and everyone is considered an equal contributor to the discussion. It offers the opportunity for fans all over the world to exchange their views and thoughts about science fiction, fantasy and horror, without intimidation, regardless of their point of view, age, level of intelligence, hair colour, sock size or whatever.

One of the benefits of being part of such a large community of like minded people is finding common interests, in this case SFF books. That being said, whenever one joins a new community, getting to know the nature of the membership is very helpful in becoming a good and contributing member of said community. Maybe lurk around the forums and scan over some of the older threads for a while before posting, get to know what's been discussed (i.e. the many threads dedicated to the Wheel of Time or Joe Abercrombie), what people around here enjoy and conversely, what people dislike.

There are certain actions that we expect from you as a condition of you signing up. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use

By signing up, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-orientated, hateful, racist, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.

It is a general rule that members are treated by other members with respect. What is seen by the staff or owner as behaviour inappropriate for SFFWorld (for example, bullying, hectoring, cheap shots at members or staff) will lead to posts being altered, removed and/or members being banned from the Forums.

As this is predominantly a Forum for the discussion of SF, Horror and Fantasy, topics about contemporary political discussion or religion (unless related to the genres) are not generally accepted here.

Consequently we do not accept criticism about a writer’s personal beliefs, political persuasion, sexuality etc. In some cases the writer’s beliefs appear to be linked to his written work. However, as the author is not here to say so, nor here to defend such assumptions, then we cannot assume that.

While members may hold strong opinions on a writer's work, personal attacks will not be tolerated. If you dislike a book or an author's writing, please back up why you dislike it. Brief comments such as "Author X Sucks!" will not be acceptable and will be removed.

Although the administrators and moderators of SFFWorld.com will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the original author, and the staff/owner of SFFWorld.com will not be held responsible for the content of any message.

The site is proud of its multinational nature and wishes to encourage global discussion. However, this usually means that we try and limit our points to the English language (with the odd bit of Latin etc thrown in!) and that we DO NOT USE PHONE-TEXT style writing. U knw, lk ths, cos u cb harder to understand.

Linking to torrent sites (or sites of a similar nature) are not allowed at SFFWorld. Members who do so will be issued with a Strike.

2. Promotion / Advertising: goods for sale etc

Posting advertisements at SFFWorld is not something we allow in the Forums. Members who sign up to SFFWorld to do nothing else than advertise their own products/sites/blogs etc will have their threads removed and membership removed. This may be without warning. Multiple threads of such a type will automatically lead to the membership being revoked and posts removed. However, see ADDENDUM below.

ADDENDUM: Since March 2012 we have introduced a Promotions Forum Area, on a trial basis. This is where members can highlight their own books, films, trailers, websites and things of genre interest. Other than being for bringing member's attention to things, the area still follows all the usual SFFWorld rules. Promotions anywhere else on site will still be subject to the appropriate action, as outlined above.

Using your own website address as your member name is not allowed.

Using Private Messages to contact members for the purpose of promotion and/or advertising will lead to membership being removed. This may be without warning.

3. Spam
The SFFWorld discussion forums are officially a ‘spam-free’ zone. The rule of thumb is that any threads here, whether serious or fun, should be in the nature of a discussion, or exchange of information. Anything else will be removed and memberships revoked.

4. Staying on topic.
We ask, within reason, that threads stay broadly on topic, though we are aware that the nature of discussion forums is that comments do sometimes meander.

5. Spoilers
We appreciate the use of spoiler tags where possible in discussion threads.

How to use them:

Like all the UBB codes, utilize the brackets, in this case, as follows. Just close up the space between spoiler and the brackets:

While we understand new members are eager to put their thoughts and personalities out in the forums by starting new topics, one thing to consider is that this forum has been active for over a decade. As such, many topics, authors, and books have come up in discussion in the past (both the distant (4+ years) and recent (6 months - year). We encourage members to utilize SEARCH function and TAG functions to see if a particular book or author has been discussed.

8. Blogs
Blogs are a new element to SFFWorld. Though they are a separate entity to the Discussion Forums, it is expected, as a consequence of you agreeing to the SFFWorld Terms of Use, that their usage follows the general guidelines as given above for the Discussion Forums. However, they are intended as an area of SFFWorld with a slightly looser set of responsibilities.

Because of the risk of actions against us, we do not allow any form of fan fiction (ie: that involving well known or trademarked characters such as Superman, Batman, Buffy, Star Wars, Star Trek etc etc) on the site. Any such stories will be removed.

9. Actions of staff/owner at SFFWorld

We reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

Any alterations in the Discussion Forums and Blogs are usually taken following discussion with other staff. Alterations may also occur when the staff have had a post or thread brought to their attention by other members.

Usually we follow a 'Three Strikes policy', where members are given three chances to correct inappropriate actions before their permanent removal from SFFWorld.

However, in some situations it may take one incident for a member's posts to be removed and their membership revoked. This decision is taken by the staff/owner and it is a condition of your Terms of Use that you agree to this action possibly being taken.

Clearly there are grey areas there; staff have to tread the fine line between trying to allow meaningful discussion which is respectful to those discussing, and allowing members to express their opinion. Ultimately the choice is made by the staff (note: that’s plural!) and/or the owner.

The usual view is that if we/he don’t like it, or feel that other members won’t like it, then we do something about it. Whatever the response, the staff’s actions are taken with the site’s best interests at heart and in the interests of pursuing discussion without derision.

10. Comments and queries
On these Guidelines or anything else can be posted in our ‘Feedback’ forum or directed to any of the moderators or admin. If your comments relate to a particular forum then we advise you to contact the moderators named for that forum, in the first instance.